California Chins

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
770498949
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Phone
8052446788
Rating
61
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$190,361
Expenses
$250,633
Assets
$1,517,305
Liabilities
$116

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Holly Trapp (President)
  • Michael Trapp (Vice President)
  • Holly Trapp (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Holly Trapp (President): $52,512 total reported compensation
  • Michael Trapp (Vice President): $24,116 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

California Chins's mission is to accept, care for, and adopt out chinchillas while educating the public about the joys of keeping chinchillas as pets.

What it reported doing in 2024

California Chins hosts an annual "Pocket Pet Health Day" where any member of the public can bring their small rodents to a highly skilled veterinary office and receive a basic health screening for an extremely low cost. This is done as a public outreach event. The rescule coordinates with the veterinary hospital to host this event, and veterinary medicine students from a local university volunteer to help conduct the exams as a way to get a large amount of practical, hands on experience that is otherwise difficult to come by as chinchillas are exotic animals in most veterinary practices and hospitals.

Operating model

Revenue model
Investment-supported. 77% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 91% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 86
  • Transparency & Controls: 76
  • Accountability: 0
  • Sustainability: 37
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 90%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 84.6%; rating input score 85; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 73.2%; rating input score 73; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -31.7%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.05; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 30.6%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15.5% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -31.3% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 90% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 3 board members independent · 0 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $225K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $53K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 28 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 9/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 59/100.